UC-NRLF 


Miiw<ni»i'Mii-iiii<»TiniiinnitmmTmTnTTiT»iriiTmr-ifriT-f-f"— ■'"•— -*J 

CHARLES  FRANKLIN  THWING 


THE  MINISTRY: 
AN  APPEAL  TO  COLLEGE  MEN 


THE  MINISTRY 

AN  APPEAL  TO 
COLLEGE  MEN 


BY 

CHARLES  FRANKLIN  THWING 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

President  of  Western  Reserve 
University 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 

BOSTON  CHICAGO 


TJr 


Copyright  1916 
By  CHARLES  F.  THWING 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 
BOSTON 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introductory  Note vii 

I.     Attractions  of  the  Ministry  as  a 

Calling 3 

II.     Objections  to  the  Ministry  as  a 

Calling .      .33 

III.  Qualities  Necessary  in  the  Man 

Choosing  the  Ministry  .     .      .57 

IV.  Testimonies  Regarding  the  Satis- 

factions and  the  Opportunities 
of  the  Ministry 71 


530M26 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

This  little  volume  is  addressed  to 
men  in  college  who  are  soon  to  make  a 
choice  of  life's  calling.  It  seeks  to  be 
an  interpretation  of  the  conditions,  an 
appreciation  of  the  forces  and  difficul- 
ties, and  a  presentation  of  some  of  the 
opportunities,  of  the  ministry.  It  is 
also  an  appeal  simple  and  plain.  It  is 
not  concerned  with  any  special  theory 
of  the  church  or  of  the  ministry.  I 
fear  that  much  of  what  I  have  writ- 
ten, though  I  hope  not  all,  will  seem 
unwarranted  by  my  friends  of )  the 
Roman  Catholic  Communion.  I  write 
as  a  Protestant  and  for  Protestants, 
and  also  as  a  college  president  for 
those  best  men  —  college  students. 

C.  F.  T. 

Western  Reserve  University,  Cleveland 
1st  December,  1916 


I 

ATTRACTIONS  OF  THE 
MINISTRY  AS  A  CALLING 


The  Ministry 

An  Appeal  to  College  Men 
CHAPTER  I 

ATTRACTIONS    OF    THE    MINISTRY    AS    A 
CALLING 

MANY,  weighty,  and  diverse  are  the 
elements  of  the  ministry,  mak- 
ing its  work   attractive  to  col- 
lege men.     These  elements  easily  fall 
into  two  classes:  the  personal,  or  self- 
ward,  and  the  altruistic. 

Several  of  the  self-ward  reasons  are 
summed  up  in  the  opportunities  and 
advantages  which  the  ministry  offers 
for  self-culture.  This  enrichment  is 
both  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  heart. 
The  ministry  invites  to  intellectual 
breadth.  It  urges  one  to  a  large 
knowledge.  "Omniscience"  is  quite 
as  much  the  foible  of  the  minister  as 
it  was  of  Whewell  of  Cambridge  a  half 

[3] 


THE  MINISTRY 


century  ago!  No  other  profession  so 
worthily  draws  its  strength  and  in- 
spiration from  every  part.  The  world 
is  its  creditor.  Whether  it  is  indebted 
more  to  literature  or  to  nature  may  be 
a  question,  but  it  is  certainly  indebted 
much  to  each.  It  may  be  said  of  the 
minister  that  "Nothing  is  foreign  to 
him  which  relates  to  man."  Some  of 
the  greatest  preachers  of  recent  times, 
as  Richard  Salter  Storrs,  Finney,  and 
Dwight,  have  in  their  early  years 
been  students  of  the  law.  They  have 
said  that  their  legal  studies  contributed 
to  their  service  in  preaching  and  per- 
sonal relations.  The  early  ministers 
in  America  were  largely  the  physicians 
of  the  colonial  communities.  The  cler- 
ical calling  aided  in  the  performance  of 
the  duties  of  the  medical.  The  ministry 
is  and  represents  the  study  of  man  as 
man,  in  body,  mind  and  soul. 

The  culture  of  the  ministry  tends 
also  to  intellectual  depth.  The  themes 
of  the  minister  are  the  profoundest; 

[4] 


ATTRACTIONS 


they  arouse  the  deepest  thoughts.  The 
minister  touches  upon  the  character 
and  nature  of  God,  upon  the  revelation 
of  God  to  man,  and  upon  the  possibility 
and  the  degree  of  man's  knowledge  of 
God.  The  minister  is  concerned  with 
the  qualities  of  the  human  mind,  the 
relation  of  the  intellectual  to  the 
emotional  faculty,  of  the  emotional  to 
the  volitional,  of  the  volitional  in 
turn  to  the  intellectual.  The  con- 
science, the  imagination,  the  affections, 
every  faculty  of  the  human  constitu- 
tion are  the  field  of  his  study.  His 
theme  is  the  entire  moral  and  spiritual 
constitution.  He  should  be  the  ablest 
psychologist. 

"If  then,"  writes  Professor  Edwards 
A.  Park  in  his  essay,  "Dignity  and 
Importance  of  the  Preacher's  Work," 
"the  acme  of  the  Creator's  glories  is 
to  be  the  most  familiar  of  the  preacher's 
themes;  if  all  human  sciences  are  but 
ancillary  to  that  revealed  system  which 
the  preacher  is  to  explain  and  enforce, 
[5] 


THE  MINISTRY 


if  eternity  and  the  resurrection,  and 
God,  and  Christ,  the  Sovereign,  the 
Judge,  the  Saviour,  are  to  be  the  great 
objects  upon  which  his  mind  is  to 
dilate,  then  it  is  well  to  require  of 
him  that  he  be  not  a  novice,  but  a  man 
of  greatness  of  spirit,  of  high  aims  and 
large  compass  of  thought.  If  a  vigor- 
ous intellect  be  needed  for  the  study 
of  human  jurisprudence,  it  is  doubly 
requisite  for  the  examination  of  that 
law  according  to  which  all  our  wise 
codes  of  legislation  are  framed;  which 
is  illustrated  by  precedents  more  nu- 
merous and  complicated  than  are  con- 
tained in  all  our  juridical  reports; 
which  has  such  relations  to  man  as  to 
call  for  a  close  scrutiny  into  his  nature 
and  character;  and  such  relations  to 
God  as  demand  a  comprehensive  view  of 
his  rectitude  on  the  one  hand,  and  his 
grace  on  the  other,  and  of  that  signal 
invention  by  which  he  can  even  honor 
the  law  by  remitting  its  penalties. "  * 

1  Preacher  and  Pastor.    Introductory  Essay  by  Professor  Edwards 
A  Park  D.D.,  p.  IS. 


6] 


ATTRACTIONS 


The  means,  too,  which  the  ministry 
offers  for  growth  in  self-culture  are 
nobly  indicated  in  an  address  given  by 
President  Eliot  to  the  Divinity  Club 
of  Harvard  University  in  April,  1907, 
on  The  Ministry.     President  Eliot  says : 

"A  devoted  and  active  minister  may 
grow  in  wisdom  and  power  all  his  days. 
An  enlarging  conception  of  truth,  a 
wider  sympathy,  and  an  ampler  hope 
are  the  influences  which  make  men 
grow  as  years  advance.  In  no  pro- 
fession can  a  man  arrive  at  the  whole 
truth;  but  in  all  professions  the  way 
to  win  more  truth  is  one  and  the  same. 
The  modern  world  has  not  arrived  at 
ultimate  truth;  but  it  has  learned  the 
way  to  discover,  little  by  little,  step 
by  step,  more  truth.  It  is  the  way  of 
the  inductive  philosophy.  A  young 
university  graduate  in  these  days  who 
has  mastered  this  way  to  new  truth,  — 
new  to  him,  or  perhaps  new  to  the 
world,  —  and  believes  in  this  way,  has 
in  him  one  great  element  of  perpetual 

[7] 


THE  MINISTRY 


growth,  and  the  kind  of  growth  will 
be  the  same,  whatever  his  profession, 
—  the  church,  the  law,  medicine,  en- 
gineering, architecture,  business,  or 
whatever  other  calling.  In  any  pro- 
fession we  now  know  the  way  to  per- 
sonal mental  and  moral  enlargement. 
The  cooperative  spirit  is  also  in  every 
profession  a  way  to  enlargement,  and 
this  spirit  belongs  to  no  profession 
in  higher  degree  than  to  the  ministry; 
and  the  hopeful,  optimistic  spirit  is 
enlarging,  and  no  profession  ought 
more  perfectly  and  constantly  to  foster 
this  spirit  than  the  ministry,  because 
the  ministry  is  always  dealing  with  the 
best  sides  of  human  nature  and  the  best 
aspects  of  human  society,  and  is  always 
holding  up  and  promulgating  the  high- 
est spiritual  ideals.  A  minister  who 
is  not  an  optimist  must  have  been 
looking  back  and  not  forward,  down 
and  not  up."  * 
The    ministry    is    indeed    a    calling 

»  Harvard  Bulletin,  22  May,  1907. 

[8] 


ATTRACTIONS 


which  broadens  and  deepens  the  in- 
tellect. It  develops  also  every  part  of 
a  man's  character.  The  heart  becomes 
tenderer  and  more  responsive  without 
softness,  the  conscience  more  keen 
without  hypercriticalness,  the  will 
stronger  and  firmer  without  stubborn- 
ness, and  the  aesthetic  faculty  more 
appreciative  without  eccentricity. 

A  second  element  in  the  ministry 
rendering  it  attractive  to  college  men 
relates  to  its  practical  character.  This 
reason  has  special  force  not  only  in 
itself,  but  also  when  united  with  its  in- 
tellectual character.  The  ministry  is 
a  most  fitting  union  of  the  practical 
and  the  theoretical.  A  certain  part  of 
the  minister's  work  disciplines  the 
intellectual,  and  another  the  adminis- 
trative or  executive  talent.  In  the 
morning  of  each  day  he  is  a  student  at 
his  desk.  In  the  afternoon  of  each  day, 
he  is  a  man  of  affairs,  on  the  street,  in 
the  shop,  in  the  home.  If  in  the  morn- 
ing he  is  an  interpreter  of  wisdom,  in 
[9] 


THE  MINISTRY 


the  afternoon  he  is  a  reader  of  living 
epistles.  He  associates  with  men  under 
the  most  diverse  and  characteristic 
conditions.  He  stands  by  the  side  of 
the  criminal  in  the  jail  and  at  the  bar, 
and  also  by  the  side  of  the  dying  saint. 
The  minister  offers  the  consolations  of 
the  Bible  and  of  Christian  truth  to 
those  who  mourn.  He  is  a  participant 
in  the  joy  of  the  wedding.  He  is  the 
intimate  associate  of  the  young,  and 
also,  though  he  may  himself  be  young, 
he  is  the  pastor  and  guide  of  those  who 
are  many  years  his  senior.  He  is  called 
upon  to  speak  a  word  of  cheer  to  the 
despairing  heart,  a  word  of  caution  to 
the  ambitious,  to  give  a  suggestion  of 
guidance  to  the  erring,  and  a  word  of 
command  to  those  who  ought  to  obey 
him.  He  is  called  upon  to  deal  with 
men  as  individuals,  and  also  in  masses. 
The  financial,  benevolent,  social  and 
spiritual  work  of  the  Church  is  his. 
He  visits  from  house  to  house,  speaking 
to  one  person;  he  stands  in  the  pulpit 

[10] 


ATTRACTIONS 


speaking  to  hundreds  or  thousands. 
He  is  called  upon  literally  to  do  every- 
thing. He  closes  the  eyes  of  the  dead, 
administers  upon  estates,  serves  as 
legal  guardian  for  children,  officiates 
as  a  member  of  the  school  committee  of 
the  town,  and  inaugurates  philan- 
thropic measures  for  the  improvement 
of  the  town,  the  municipality  or  of 
the  commonwealth.  No  work  to  him 
is  remote.  Scholarly  employments 
tend  to  draw  their  followers  away 
from  the  practical  concerns  of  life. 
This  is  the  influence  of  the  law  and  of 
teaching.  The  tendency  of  business 
is,  on  the  contrary,  antagonistic  to 
scholarly  pursuits.  The  ministry  unites 
all  these  diverse  elements.  It  at  once 
tends  to  develop  the  intellectual  and 
the  practical  in  human  character. 

The  public  influence  of  the  minister 
constitutes  a  further  reason  or  element 
of  attractiveness.  Beyond  the  limits 
of  his  own  church  and  pulpit,  in  the 
city  or  town  of  his  residence,  he  is  an 

[11] 


THE  MINISTRY 


outstanding  citizen.  The  state  is  in- 
debted to  the  clergy  for  their  influence 
in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  people. 
The  minister  supplies,  it  has  well  been 
said,  a  want  too  profound  to  be  reached 
by  mere  civil  enactment,  too  radical 
to  be  left  to  the  care  of  philanthropists 
specially  devoted  to  philanthropy.  The 
state  is  indebted  to  the  clergyman  for 
his  influence  in  the  education  of 
the  people.  Through  their  preaching 
clergymen  are  the  educators  of  the 
people.  The  colleges  of  the  higher, 
as  well  as  the  schools  of  primary, 
education,  if  not  established  and  gov- 
erned by  clergymen,  have  at  least 
received  a  large  share  of  their  power 
from  them.  From  the  clergy  have, 
till  recent  years,  been  drawn  college 
presidents.  Ordination  vows  have  usu- 
ally preceded  the  oath  of  the  academic 
office.  The  list  includes  those  who 
have  been  the  noblest  of  ministers  and 
the  most  efficient  of  presidents.  Lord 
and  Smith  of  Dartmouth,  Walker  of 
[12] 


ATTRACTIONS 


Harvard,  Wayland  of  Brown,  Seelye 
of  Amherst,  the  elder  Dwight  and 
Porter  of  Yale,  McCosh  of  Princeton, 
—  to  go  no  farther  than  the  last 
century,  —  represent  great  leaders  in 
church  and  in  education.  In  service 
obscure  and  local  as  well  as  conspicu- 
ous, the  clergy  have  helped  to  estab- 
lish State  school  systems,  to  found  and 
to  endow  colleges  and  academies,  and 
to  administer  educational  trusts  with 
discretion,  progressiveness  and  effec- 
tiveness. 

The  opportunities  which  education 
offers  to  the  minister  are  typical  of  other 
opportunities.  Charities,  and  all  re- 
form movements,  represent  a  proper 
field  of  his  influence  and  service.  As 
the  ex-President  of  Harvard  University 
has  said,  speaking  to  men  who  were 
soon   to  become   clergymen: 

"The  minister  can  be  highly  service- 
able. He  has  the  great  function  of 
preaching,  the  weekly  opportunity  of 
setting  before  a  group  of  well-disposed 
[13] 


THE  MINISTRY 


men  and  women  the  best  ethical  views  / 
on  all  human  experiences,  common  or 
exceptional,  and  the  highest  motives 
for  right  action  in  all  the  emergencies 
of  life.  The  good  preacher  enlightens, 
cheers,  and  guides.  He  may  some- 
times denounce  or  condemn;  but,  in 
general,  he  shows  men  and  women  how 
to  walk  through  this  world  lovingly  and 
nobly.  He  may  sometimes  be  a  warn- 
ing prophet,  but  he  is  chiefly  an  in- 
spirer  of  high  motives  and  of  good 
ruling  sentiments.  In  those  denomi- 
nations which  permit  extemporaneous 
public  prayer  the  minister  possesses 
that  tremendous  means  of  influence. 
'  Leading  in  prayer '  worthily  is  the  most 
exalted  effort  of  the  human  mind.  The 
power  of  such  prayer  is  pervasive  and 
enduring  beyond  all  imagination.  It 
may  at  any  moment  give  to  the  listener 
a  thrill  which  runs  through  all  his  being, 
and  determines  the  quality,  not  only 
of  his  own  life,  but  of  many  of  those 
lives  which  will  be  touched  by  his.    The 

[14] 


ATTRACTIONS 


minister  may  be  infinitely  serviceable 
through  the  advice  he  gives  in  private 
to  persons  anxious,  bereaved,  tempted, 
or  gone  astray.  This  function  of  ad- 
vising requires  sympathy,  insight,  and, 
above  all,  wisdom;  and  these  qualities 
are  gained  or  perfected  only  through 
experience,  so  that  the  young  minister 
may  hope  to  gain  more  and  more  of 
this  influence  as  his  years  increase. 
The  minister  may  also  be  greatly 
serviceable  by  attending  to  the  social 
functions  of  a  modern  church.  A  well- 
organized,  large  city  church  has  a 
wide-spread  effect  for  social  improve- 
ment through  its  various  schools,  clubs, 
leagues,  entertainments,  and  hospitali- 
ties. Every  active  church  is  a  centre 
of  good  works  for  the  improvement 
of  society,  and  offers  to  young  people 
and  new-comers  many  safe-guards 
against  evil,  as  well  as  incitements  to 
good.  When  we  consider  that  ethical 
progress  is  the  only  real  progress  in 
human  society,  —  material  gains  being 

[15] 


THE  MINISTRY 


chiefly  good  as  they  contribute  to,  or 
supply  the  necessary  conditions  of, 
moral  gains, — we  realize  how  direct  and 
immediate  is  the  work  of  the  church, 
and  of  the  minister  at  the  head  of  the 
church,  not  only  for  the  uplifting  of 
individual  men  and  women,  but  for 
the  progress  of  mankind  towards  nobler 
living." 

A  further  element  in  the  attractive- 
ness of  the  ministry  is  its  opportunities 
for  the  cultivation  of  literature.  The 
literary  fertility  of  the  clerical  far 
exceeds  that  of  any  other  profession. 
The  number  of  volumes  written  by 
ministers  is  much  larger  than  those 
composed  by  both  lawyers  and  doctors. 
This  is  true  not  only  in  respect  to 
technical  works  but  also  in  respect  to 
works  which  belong  to  literature  proper. 
The  clergymen  sketched  in  Doctor 
Sprague's  volumes,  "Annals  of  the 
American  Pulpit,"  wrote  nearly  six 
thousand  separate  volumes  (ex- 
actly five  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
[161 


ATTRACTIONS 


thirty-eight).  Many  of  these  were 
single  sermons,  and  the  large  pro- 
portion was  of  a  religious  character. 
The  average  number,  therefore,  be- 
longing to  each  clergyman  is  five 
publications.  The  one  hundred  and 
eighty-one  Methodist  divines  produced 
sixty-nine  works,  about  one-third  of  a 
publication  each.  The  one  hundred 
and  seventy-one  Baptists  are  credited 
with  four  hundred  and  seven,  or  some- 
what more  than  two  publications  each. 
The  two  hundred  and  fifty-five  Presby- 
terians wrote  nine  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  works,  or  nearly  four  apiece.  The 
one  hundred  and  fifty-two  Episcopa- 
lians furnish  six  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  publications,  or  slightly  more  than 
four  each.  The  three  hundred  and 
forty-nine  Congregationalists  are  the 
authors  of  twenty-eight  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  publications,  averaging 
somewhat  more  than  eight  for  each 
minister.  And  the  eighty-one  Uni- 
tarian divines  claim  nine  hundred  and 

[17] 


THE  MINISTRY 


eighty-four  works,  a  proportion  which 
places  twelve  to  the  credit  of  each.1 

In  reference  to  the  greater  literary- 
activity  of  the  members  of  the  clerical 
than  of  any  other  profession,  it  is  to  be 
said  that  sermons  possess  deeper  public 
interest  than  the  discussion  of  cases  in 
either  law  or  medicine.  Therefore  a 
larger  number  of  sermons  are  published 


1  Of  the  Baptist  clergymen,  sixteen  wrote  one  book  each; 
twelve,  two  books  each;  seven,  three  books  each;  nine,  four  books 
each;  six,  five  books  each;  nine,  six  books  each;  three,  seven  books 
each;  two,  eight  books  each;  one,  nine  books;  and  one,  ten;  two, 
fifteen  books  each;  one,  eighteen  books;  one,  twenty-three;  one, 
twenty-nine;  one,  thirty-one;  one,  thirty-five;  and  one,  thirty- 
six.  Of  the  Episcopalians,  eight  wrote  one  book  each;  eight,  two 
books  each;  nine,  three  books  each;  four,  four  books  each;  nine, 
five  books  each;  five,  six  books  each;  seven,  seven  books  each; 
three,  eight  books  each;  three,  nine  books  each;  five,  ten  books 
each;  two,  eleven  books  each;  five,  twelve  books  each;  one, 
fourteen;  one,  fifteen;  and  one,  sixteen  books;  two,  eighteen  each; 
and  one,  twenty;  one,  twenty-six;  one,  twenty-eight;  one,  thirty; 
one,  thirty-two;  one,  forty-one;  and  one,  forty-five  books.  Among 
the  Presbyterian  ministers,  eighty-eight  have  written  from  one  to 
five  books  each;  twenty-two  from  six  to  ten  books  each;  thirteen, 
from  eleven  to  fifteen  books  each;  six,  from  sixteen  to  twenty 
books  each;  two,  from  twenty-one  to  thirty  books  each;  and 
five,  from  thirty-one  to  eighty  books  each.  Of  the  Congregational 
ministers,  eighty-eight  have  produced  from  one  to  five  books  each; 
thirty-five,  from  six  to  ten  books  each;  seventeen,  from  eleven  to 
fifteen  books  each;  twenty,  from  sixteen  to  twenty;  thirteen,  from 
twenty-one  to  thirty;  and  ten,  from  thirty-one  to  one  hundred 
books  each.  Of  this  denomination,  as  well  as  of  all,  Increase 
Mather  seems  to  be  the  most  voluminous  author.  His  name  is 
attached  to  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  eighty-two  publications. 
Of  the  Unitarian  clergymen,  twelve  have  written  from  one  to  five 
books  each;  four,  six  books  each;  seven,  seven  books  each;  three, 
eight  books  each;  seven,  nine  books  each;  five,  ten  books  each; 
one,  eleven;  one,  twelve;  one,  thirteen;  two,  fourteen;  two, 
fifteen;  two,  sixteen;  one,  seventeen;  three,  eighteen;  two, 
nineteen;  one,  twenty-one  books;  and  one  each,  twenty-two, 
twenty-three,  twenty-five,  twenty-six,  twenty-nine,  thirty-two, 
thirty-three,  fifty-one,  fifty-three,  fifty-six,  and  ninety-one  books. 

f  181 


ATTRACTIONS 


than  of  medical  or  legal  addresses. 
But  further,  as  a  rule,  clergymen  are 
better  educated  than  either  physicians 
or  lawyers.  All  the  older  colleges  — 
Harvard,  William  and  Mary,  and  Yale, 
—  and  not  a  few  of  those  of  recent 
establishment,  were  founded  with  the 
special  design  of  training  ministers. 
More  than  one-half  of  the  early  gradu- 
ates of  the  two  principal  colleges  of 
New  England  entered  the  ministry. 
Today,  in  the  cities  and  in  the  rural 
districts,  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
clergy  than  of  the  members  of  other 
vocations  are  found  to  be  college-bred. 
It  is  evident  that  the  more  liberal  the 
education  possessed  by  those  pursuing 
any  calling,  the  greater  will  be  their 
literary  activity.  As  clergymen,  there- 
fore, are  better  educated,  the  volumes 
they  write  and  publish  outnumber  the 
volumes  issued  by  those  of  other  pro- 
fessions. 

And    yet,    perhaps,    the    most    im- 
portant reason  of  this  productiveness 
[19] 


THE  MINISTRY 


lies  in  the  consideration  that  the  work 
of  the  clergyman  naturally  trains  him 
for  a  literary  life.  His  duties  oblige 
him  to  reflect  upon  the  fundamental 
problems  of  society.  He  is  compelled 
to  consider  the  great  questions  of 
philosophy,  of  theology,  of  ethics,  of 
science,  and  of  education.  His  labors 
for  the  pulpit  and  in  the  parish  cause 
him  to  ponder  upon  matters  of  the 
gravest  importance,  which  invite  elabo- 
rate treatment.  As  Park,  in  writing  of 
the  "Dignity  and  Importance  of  the 
Preacher's  Work,"  has  said:  "As  a  man, 
as  a  scholar,  he  must  be  able  to  draw 
analogies  to  moral  truth  from  the 
mineral,  vegetable  and  animal  king- 
doms; but  as  a  Christian  orator  he 
should  be  at  home  in  the  philosophy  of 
the  human  intellect.  His  appropriate 
work  begins  with  those  studies,  which 
were  the  end  of  many  of  the  labors 
of  such  men  as  Descartes,  Stewart 
and  Brown.  He  is  to  answer  some 
of  the  fundamental  questions  in 
[20] 


ATTRACTIONS 


theology  by  a  reference  to  the  analy- 
ses of  intellectual  operations.  He 
must  search  out  the  laws  of  mind  as 
they  are  developed  in  the  structure  of 
language,  and  must  learn  to  interpret 
the  Bible  from  the  principles  of  mental 
suggestion.  He  must  investigate  the 
nature  of  the  intellectual  powers  as  he  is 
to  use  them,  and  the  susceptibilities  as 
he  is  to  address  them  in  the  pulpit. 
He  must  learn  how  to  instruct,  to  con- 
vince, to  enchain  attention,  to  keep 
fast  hold  upon  the  memory.  Not 
satisfied  with  the  bare  rules  of  rhetoric, 
he  must  seek  for  the  reason  of  these 
rules  in  the  nature  of  man.  Nor  is  he 
to  linger  too  long  upon  our  intellectual 
faculties.  His  higher  theme  is  our 
moral  constitution.  He  must  learn 
how  to  touch  the  secret  springs  of  the 
heart;  how  to  evoke  that  volition  which 
will  be  followed  by  an  eternity  of 
regard;  how  to  check  the  indulgence  of 
that  feeling  which  brings  in  its  train 
an  eternity  of  punishment.  The  ex- 
[21] 


THE  MINISTRY 


alted  and  impressive  designation  of  his 
office  'is  the  care  of  souls'  Immor- 
tality, free  agency,  interminable  joy 
and  pain,  such  are  the  themes  of  his 
prolonged  attention."1  The  training, 
therefore,  of  the  clergyman  fits  him  for 
a  literary  life.  Hence,  his  activity  in 
the  creation  of  literature  is  great. 

The  reasons  for  the  literary  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  Presbyterian,  Con- 
gregational, and  Unitarian  ministers  in 
comparison  with  the  ministers  of  other 
denominations,  are  to  a  degree  similar 
to  the  reasons  suggested  for  the  greater 
literary  productiveness  of  the  whole 
clerical  profession.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  them  have  received  a  college 
training.  This  education  directly  tends 
to  foster  activity  in  literature.  Edu- 
cation broadens  the  field  of  knowledge, 
as  well  as  quickens  the  intellectual 
forces,  making  the  creation  of  literature 
possible.  Education  also  influences  one 
to  maintain  a   high  literary  standard 

1  Preacher  and  Pastor.     Introductory  Essay  by  Professor  Ed- 
wards A.  Park,  D.D.,  p.  14. 


[22] 


ATTRACTIONS 


in  all  his  writing.  Therefore,  the  su- 
perior education  of  the  Congrega- 
tional, Presbyterian,  and  Unita- 
rian clergyman  promotes  their  literary 
activity.  In  reference  to  the  clergy- 
men of  the  Unitarian  Church,  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  period  of  their  labor 
falls  within  the  last  hundred  years. 
This  is  a  period  in  which  the  general 
literary  influences  have  been  far  more 
potent  than  in  any  previous  time. 
The  mechanical  means  for  the  pro- 
duction of  books  have  greatly  increased. 
Every  denomination,  in  common  with 
the  Unitarian,  has  been  affected  by 
these  literary  influences,  but  the  Uni- 
tarian has  by  reason  of  its  recent  origin 
been  specially  moulded  by  them.  Har- 
vard College,  moreover,  which  near 
the  beginning  of  the  century  was  the 
centre  of  Unitarianism,  has  specially 
emphasized  the  study  and  production 
of  literature.  Her  professors  have  in- 
spired students  to  lead  a  literary  life. 
Her  graduates  include  the  ablest  and 
[23] 


THE  MINISTRY 


most  distinguished  men  of  American 
letters.  The  clergymen  of  that  church, 
therefore,  to  which  she  has  till  recent 
years  specially  adhered,  have  to  a  large 
extent  devoted  themselves  in  the  midst 
of  their  formal  vocation  to  literary 
pursuits. 

I  wish  also  to  say  that  the  ministry 
offers  rich  rewards  in  the  love  which 
the  church  gives  to  him  who  serves  it 
well.  Such  love  approaches  to  the 
intimacy  of  the  relationships  of  the 
home.  Let  me  cite  a  single  example. 
At  the  conclusion  of  a  score  of  years  in 
his  Hartford  pastorate,  the  great  Bush- 
nell  said  to  his  church: 

"To  sum  up  all,  then,  brethren,  I 
thank  my  God  upon  every  remembrance 
of  you,  always  in  every  prayer  of  mine 
for  you  all,  making  request  with  joy 
for  your  fellowship  in  the  Gospel  from 
the  first  day  until  now.  You  have 
been  immovable  and  true  in  your  fidelity 
to  me.  Assailed  by  powerful  com- 
binations, you  have  never  lost  your 
[24] 


ATTRACTIONS 


balance,  but  have  given  an  example  of 
patience,  moderation,  and  firmness,  in 
which  I  must  do  violence  to  my  Chris- 
tian feeling  as  a  pastor  not  to  offer 
you  my  hearty  congratulations.  You 
have  never  been  a  captious  people.  .  .  . 
You  have  never  been  inattentive  to 
my  wants,  but  have  always  kept  me  on 
the  sunny  side  of  comfort.  Three  times 
have  you  raised  my  salary  without  any 
suggestion  from  me  —  from  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars  to  two  thousand  dollars. 
A  few  months  after  you  had  liquidated 
your  debt  by  a  heavy  subscription, 
when  my  health  was  failing  from  pro- 
tracted labor,  you  advanced  me  the 
money  necessary  to  defray  my  ex- 
penses for  a  year  in  Europe,  continued 
my  salary,  and  supplied  the  pulpit 
yourselves.  Again  you  did  the  same  the 
last  year  during  my  absence  of  months 
in  a  journey  to  the  West,  not  to  speak 
of  the  innumerable  tokens  of  interest  in 
me  and  my  family  shown  by  methods 
more  private.  And,  what  is  more 
[251 


THE  MINISTRY 


grateful  to  me  than  all  besides,  I  think 
you  have  endeavored  to  extract  some 
spiritual  benefit  from  my  unworthy 
and  very  defective  ministry." x 

The  love  which  the  church  at  Hart- 
ford gave  Bushnell  is  the  love  which 
in  kind  thousands  of  churches  are 
waiting  to  give  to  their  ministers. 
Such  love  is  among  the  mightiest 
consolations  and  contentments  of  any 
man. 

A  sixth  reason  or  element  of  attrac- 
tiveness in  the  ministry,  to  which  I  shall 
briefly  allude,  relates  to  the  ministry 
as  an  essential  element  in  the  progress 
of  Christianity  in  the  world.  It  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  Christianity 
would  progress  if  the  ministry  were 
abolished;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that 
if  officers  are  essential  to  a  victorious 
army  and  leaders  important  in  any 
undertaking,  ministers  are  important 
and  essential  for  the  advance  of  the 
Christian   religion.     In   his    speech   in 

»Lifc  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  286. 

[26] 


ATTRACTIONS 


the  Girard  College  case,  Mr.  Webster 
asks: 

"And  where  was  Christianity  ever 
received,  where  were  its  truths  ever 
poured  into  the  human  heart,  where  did 
its  waters,  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life,  ever  burst  forth,  except  in  the 
track  of  a  Christian  ministry?  Did  we 
ever  hear  of  an  instance,  does  history 
record  an  instance,  of  any  part  of  the 
globe  Christianized  by  lay  preachers, 
or  'lay  teachers'?  And,  descending 
from  kingdoms  and  empires  to  cities 
and  countries,  to  parishes  and  villages, 
do  we  not  all  know,  that  wherever 
Christianity  has  been  carried  and  where- 
ever  it  has  been  taught,  by  human 
agency,  that  agency  was  the  agency  of 
ministers  of  the  Gospel?  It  is  all  idle, 
and  a  mockery,  to  pretend  that  any  man 
has  respect  for  the  Christian  religion 
who  yet  derides,  reproaches,  and  stig- 
matizes all  its  ministers  and  teachers." 
The  ministry  may  be  thus  called  divine, 
for  it  is  a  power  ordained  of  God  for  the 
[27] 


THE  MINISTRY 


perpetuation  of  His  cause  in  the  earth. 
It  is  also  human,  because  the  field  of  its 
service  is  humanity.  The  alternative 
is  on  the  one  side  a  progressive  Chris- 
tianity and  a  well-equipped  clergy, 
and  on  the  other  side  no  progressive 
Christianity  and  no  ministry. 

But,  in  addition,  the  minister,  serving 
as  missionary,  has  added  languages  to 
the  world's  tongues,  has  made  archaeo- 
logical, geological,  and  other  scien- 
tific investigations,  has  enlarged  the 
world's  commerce,  has  established 
schools  and  colleges,  has  mapped  out 
continents  and  islands,  has  served  as 
counsellor  to  kings  and  emperors.  The 
minister  bears  the  blessings  of  a  Chris- 
tian civilization  to  dark  continents. 

I  fear  that  these  elements  of  attrac- 
tiveness to  which  I  have  referred  are 
placed  upon  a  key-note  altogether  too 
low.  They  seem  not  only  self-ward, 
but  also  sdi-ish,  and  several  of  them, 
which  might  be  called  altruistic,  may 
be  easily  interpreted  as  pretty  personal. 
[28] 


ATTRACTIONS 


But  I  do  wish  to  say  that  the  ministry 
is  a  mighty  challenge  to  the  man  of 
great  strength.  For  it  may  represent 
the  noblest  self-sacrifice.  The  min- 
ister gives  life,  because  he  has  lost  it. 
But  he  is  not  to  give  it  in  order  to  find 
it.  Any  such  purpose  vitiates  the 
self-surrender.  All  the  noblest  sacri- 
fices of  noble  souls  for  high  ideals  of 
human  betterment  are  a  part  of  the 
heritage  of  the  minister.  The  place 
of  work  may  be  in  India  or  Alaska  or 
New  York.  The  kind  of  work  may  be 
medical,  evangelistic,  or  educational. 
The  associations  of  the  work  may  be 
historic  as  in  Cairo  or  Calcutta,  or  local 
and  obscure  as  in  the  South  Sea  Is- 
lands; but  whatever  and  wherever  and 
however  the  work  is,  the  service  is  a 
challenge  for  a  man  to  live  largely, 
to  give  and  to  do  his  best.  Such  a 
challenge  quickens,  ennobles,  purifies, 
exalts. 

Such  are  some  of  the  rich  compen- 
sations belonging  to  the  minister  as  the 
[291 


THE  MINISTRY 


leader  of  the  church  that  seeks,  through 
its  work,  to  bless  the  world.  They  are 
the  blessings  which,  whether  broad  or 
narrow,  thin  or  deep  —  and  they  are 
more  broad  than  narrow,  and  rather 
profound  than  superficial  —  every  min- 
ister, through  the  grace  of  God,  may 
claim  as  the  reward  of  his  headship 
under  Christ  in  the  working  church. 


30 


II 

OBJECTIONS  TO  THE 
MINISTRY  AS  A  CALLING 


CHAPTER  II 

OBJECTIONS     TO     THE     MINISTRY     AS     A 
CALLING 

YET,    despite   these   things  which 
make  the  work  of  the  ministry 
attractive  to  college  men,  there 
are  causes  repelling  college  men  from 
this  great  calling. 

Among  these  causes,  I  name,  first, 
the  belief  that  success  depends  upon 
meretricious  qualities.  Success  does 
not,  of  course,  depend  upon  meretri- 
cious qualities,  but  young  men  are  in- 
clined to  believe  that  success  does  so 
depend.  When  one,  a  score  of  years 
ago,  saw  the  immense  congregations  of 
DeWitt  Talmage  in  Brooklyn,  and  the 
relatively  small  congregations  of  Rich- 
ard Salter  Storrs,  and  compared  the 
quality  of  the  sermons  of  the  one 
preacher  with  the  quality  of  the  ser- 
mons of  the  other  preacher,  the  young 
man  of  brain  was  inclined  to  think 
[33] 


THE  MINISTRY 


that  he  could  succeed  in  securing  a 
large  following  only  by  having  and 
using  those  qualities  that  do  not  com- 
mand the  highest  respect.  For  the 
success  of  meretriciousness  does  show 
itself  in  what  is  known  as  sensational 
preaching.  Sensational  preaching,  as 
Brooks  has  said,  is  "  simply  the  effort  of 
a  man  who  has  no  faith  in  his  office  or 
in  the  essential  power  of  truth  to  keep 
himself  before  people's  eyes  by  some 
kind  of  intellectual  fantasticalness.  It 
is  a  pursuit  of  brightness  and  vivacity 
of  thought  for  its  own  sake,  which 
seems  to  come  from  a  certain  almost 
desperate  determination  of  the  sen- 
sational minister  that  he  will  not  be 
forgotten.  I  think  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  nervous  uneasiness  of  mind  which 
shows  a  shaken  confidence  in  one's 
position.  It  struggles  for  cleverness. 
It  lives  by  making  points.  It  is  fatal 
to  that  justice  of  thought  which  alone 
in  the  long  run  commands  confidence 
and  carries  weight.  The  man  who  is 
[341 


OBJECTIONS 


always  trying  to  attract  attention  and 
be  brilliant  counts  the  mere  sober 
effort  after  absolute  truth  and  justice 
dull.  It  is  more  tempting  to  be  clever 
and  unjust  than  to  be  serious  and  just. 
Every  preacher  has  constantly  to  make 
his  choice  which  he  will  be.  It  does 
not  belong  to  men,  like  angels,  to  be 
'ever  bright  and  fair,'  together.  And 
the  anxious  desire  for  glitter  is  one  of 
the  signs  of  the  dislodgment  of  the 
clerical  position  in  our  time."  ' 

Such  interpretations  every  thought- 
ful college  man  is  making,  and,  as 
Brooks  says,  they  influence  him  to 
turn  his  back  upon  the  calling. 

Second,  the  young  man  in  college  is 
inclined  to  be  repelled  from  the  minis- 
try because  of  what  he  regards  as  a 
strife  for  the  first  places.  Such  strife 
does  exist.  Ministers  are  human,  and 
humanity  is  ambitious.  Such  ambi- 
tions for  the  highest  pulpits  and  the 
greatest  synagogues  are  unworthy  and 

1  Lectures  on  Preaching  delivered  before  the  Divinity  School  of 
Yale  College.    Phillips  Brooks,  pp.  248-9. 


35] 


THE  MINISTRY 


unmanly.  The  young  man  of  heart 
and  brain  and  love  for  noblest  service, 
beholding  this  strife,  is  repelled  from 
association  in  work  with  those  who 
are  thus  striving. 

A  third  reason  is  that  the  student 
sees  that  the  period  of  usefulness  in 
the  ministry  is  short.  He  hears  much 
about  the  "dead  line  of  fifty."  In  the 
profession  of  the  law  and  of  medicine, 
he  knows  that  the  best  work  of  most 
men  is  done  after  they  have  rounded 
their  half  century;  he  also  knows  that 
in  the  ministry  the  call  is  for  young 
men.  He  hesitates  to  enter  a  vocation, 
in  which  the  older  he  grows  after  a 
certain  age,  the  less  acceptable  he  will 
probably  prove  to  be.  The  reason  for 
the  church  calling  for  young  men  is 
possibly  not  far  to  seek.  Bishop  Simp- 
son has  spoken  of  the  causes  which  he 
believes  contribute  to  the  popularity 
of  young  men  as  compared  with  the 
popularity  of  old  men.  He  believes 
that  one  cause  is  the  neglect  of  study 


OBJECTIONS 


on  the  part  of  some  of  the  older  minis- 
ters. This  neglect  of  study  is  due  to  a 
lack  of  that  stimulus  which  other  pro- 
fessions offer.  Society  likes  to  be 
stirred  and  excited,  and  youth  has  a 
great  power  of  exciting.  Youth  is  more 
in  earnest.  The  young  minister  is 
popular,  it  may  also  be  said,  because  a 
congregation  likes  to  see  in  their  min- 
ister development  and  growth.  The 
young  man  they  expect  to  grow,  and 
usually  he  meets  the  expectation.  The 
old  man  they  do  not  expect  to  grow,  and 
usually  he  more  than  meets  the  ex- 
pectation. The  young  man  is  a  con- 
stant appeal  to  the  sense  of  gratified 
hopefulness. 

A  fourth  reason  that  deters  young 
men  from  entering  the  ministry  may 
lie  in  the  impression  that  only  men  of 
weak  brains  enter  this  calling.  Pro- 
fessor J.  P.  Mahaffey,  in  his  little  book 
"Modern  Preaching,"  writes  of  the 
want  of  ability  in  our  preachers.  He 
says: 

[37] 


THE  MINISTRY 


"No  doubt  the  majority  of  mankind 
is  wanting  in  this  quality;  the  average 
of  intellect  is  low,  and  most  people  are 
very  dull;  but  when  we  find  so  many 
men  professing  to  teach  from  the  pulpit 
who  are  totally  unable  to  frame  a  sus- 
tained argument,  —  nay,  more,  unable 
to  understand  it  when  put  before  them, 
—  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  the 
abler  young  men  of  our  day  do  not 
adopt  this  profession,  and  that  our 
preachers,  as  a  body,  are  below  even 
the  average  intellect.  I  remember  very 
well  —  indeed  painfully  well  —  a  class 
of  divinity  students  which  I  instructed 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  after 
laboring  a  whole  term  with  all  possible 
care,  and  making  them  go  over  the 
argument,  and  write  it  out,  and  re- 
hearse it,  they  confessed  to  me  in  a  body 
at  the  end  of  the  term  that  they  had 
made  no  advance  in  it  whatever,  for 
that  none  of  them  was  able  to  follow  an 
argument.  They  were  not  many,  — 
eight,  I  think,  —  and  such  a  case  only 
[38] 


OBJECTIONS 


occurred  to  me  once  in  many  years' 
teaching;  but  in  every  year  there  were 
some  men  of  this  kind,  men  who  de- 
liberately adopted  the  profession  of 
religious  teaching,  with  the  conscious- 
ness that  they  could  not  possibly 
understand  what  they  had  to  teach. 
They  were,  in  fact,  adopting  this  pro- 
fession because  too  dull  for  any  other." l 
The  impression  of  Professor  Mahaffey 
is  the  common  impression;  but  I  be- 
lieve it  is  false.  In  proof  of  the  false- 
ness of  this  impression,  let  me  say 
several  years  ago  I  made  an  examina- 
tion of  the  college  rank  and  scholarship 
of  the  students  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Andover.  The  result 
proved  that  a  very  high  standard  of 
undergraduate  scholarship  was  main- 
tained by  the  large  majority.  Of  the 
fifty-two  Andover  students  who  had 
received  their  first  degree  (excluding 
two,  one  of  whom  never  knew  and 
the  other  of  whom  had  forgotten,  his 

1  Modern  Preaching.     J.  P.  Mahaffey,  pp.  51,  52. 

[39] 


THE  MINISTRY 


college  rank),  only  six  ranked  in  the 
lower  half  of  their  college  class.  Of  the 
forty-six  who  stood  in  the  first  half, 
thirty-four  ranked  in  the  first  third, 
twenty-eight  in  the  first  fourth,  twenty- 
three  in  the  first  fifth,  twenty  in  the 
first  sixth,  fifteen  in  the  first  seventh, 
thirteen  in  the  first  eighth  and  ninth, 
eleven  in  the  first  tenth,  ten  in  the  first 
eleventh,  nine  in  the  first  twelfth,  and 
eight  in  the  first  twentieth.  Of  these 
eight  scholars  of  the  highest  relative 
standing,  one  ranked  fourth  in  a  class 
of  seventy-six,  one  fourth  in  a  class 
of  eighty-one,  one  third  in  a  class  of 
seventy-four,  one  fourth  in  a  class  of 
ninety-four,  one  first  in  a  class  of  six- 
teen, one  first  in  a  class  of  thirty-four, 
one  second  in  a  class  of  eighty,  and  one 
third  in  a  class  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty. 

The  most  potent  cause  of  this  error 

of  public  opinion  is,  in  my  judgment, 

the   division   which    the   public   mind 

believes     necessarily    exists     between 

[40] 


OBJECTIONS 


piety  and  noble  intellectual  attain- 
ments. A  distinguished  professor  of 
homiletics  has  said  that  the  idea  pre- 
vails that  a  sermon  of  great  piety  can- 
not be  a  sermon  of  eminent  intellectual 
excellence.  The  same  idea  obtains 
in  regard  to  college  men.  Piety  and 
scholarship  are  regarded  as  contra- 
dictories. Piety  is  looked  upon  as 
first  cousin  to  effeminacy,  and  effemi- 
nacy and  intellectual  greatness  are 
antipodes.  Those  students  who  enter 
the  ministry  are,  of  course,  as  a  body, 
distinguished  for  their  piety  above 
many  of  their  classmates,  and  hence  it 
is  inferred  that  their  scholarship  is 
low  and  their  ability  small. 

A  second  cause  of  the  misconception 
is  the  comparative  poverty  of  students 
of  theology.  As  a  class,  they  are  less 
wealthy,  or  more  poor,  than  other 
professional  students.  About  five- 
sixths  of  the  members  of  the  Con- 
gregational seminaries  are  aided  by 
the  Education  Society.  From  the  pos- 
[41] 


THE  MINISTRY 


session  of  wealth  by  an  educated  young 
man  of  pure  life  flow  those  graces  of 
manner  which  go  to  make  up  what  is, 
superficially  called,  a  gentleman.  In 
judging  of  the  intellectual  worth  of 
students,  the  common  mind  lays  more 
emphasis  upon  these  exterior  accom- 
plishments than  upon  the  mental  at- 
tainments which  are  not  so  apparent. 
Theological  students,  possessing  these 
accomplishments  in  a  less  degree  than 
other  professional  students,  are,  there- 
fore, ranked  by  the  public  sentiment  as 
correspondingly  inferior  in  respect  to 
intellectual  worth. 

Another  fact  dissuading  men  from 
the  ministry  lies  in  the  hard  field  of  an 
insufficient  livelihood.  The  salary  is 
usually  small,  and  may  be  so  small  as 
to  make  living  difficult.  Salaries  in 
the  ministry  have  always  been  small, 
and,  as  in  teaching,  will  probably 
remain  small;  but  present  conditions 
render  their  purchasing  power  slight. 

A  small  stipend  rests  with  especial 
[421 


OBJECTIONS 


weight  upon  the  minister's  wife.  The 
wife  of  a  minister  of  the  present  time  is 
usually  or  frequently  a  college  gradu- 
ate. She  is  somewhat  less  fitted  to 
undertake  all  the  duties  of  house- 
keeping and  home-making  than  was 
her  mother  or  grandmother,  who  was 
herself  also  the  help-mate  of  a  clergy- 
man. The  college  man  in  reflecting 
upon  his  future  calling  is  inclined  to 
give,  and  ought  to  give,  a  large  place 
to  the  happiness  of  his  wife.  When  he 
finds  that  the  clerical  income  will  be 
small  and  the  work  hard,  he  comes  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  ought  not  to 
ask  her  to  share  the  hardship  with  him. 
He  keeps  his  wife  and  declines  the 
calling. 

There  is  much  of  truth  in  this  inter- 
pretation. But  be  it  also  said,  that  most 
churches  do  pay  a  salary  which  allows 
the  minister  to  live  in  the  way  in  which 
the  better  part  of  the  church  lives.  If 
the  well-to-do  families  of  the  parish 
exist  on  an  income  of  only  five  hundred 
[43] 


THE  MINISTRY 


dollars,  the  parish  asks  the  minister 
to  accept  of  its  lot.  If  the  abler  fami- 
lies use  five  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
it  is  probable  that  his  own  salary  would 
be  of  this  sum.  A  parish  seldom  allows 
a  minister  or  his  family  to  starve! 

I  am  also  led  to  believe  that  a  cause 
having  larger  influence  than  it  is  charged 
with  is  that  college  men  believe  the 
church  has  lost  its  leadership  in  the 
higher  affairs  of  the  community. 
Whether  the  leadership  be  lost  or  not, 
the  fact  is  that  college  men  are  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  leadership  is  lost 
and  that  it  has  passed  over  to  edu- 
cational and  other  forces.  This  con- 
ception, false  or  true,  diverts  men  from 
the  ministry  quite  as  completely  as  if 
the  leadership  had  been  lost. 

One  of  many  students  who  have 
written  me  on  the  subject  says,  "The 
ministry  has  not  the  allurements  or 
inducements  for  young  men  at  the 
present  time  that  it  has  hitherto  pos- 
sessed. The  minister  is  no  longer 
[44  1 


OBJECTIONS 


the  leader  of  the  community  or  of  his 
congregation,  in  thought,  in  culture, 
or  even  in  spirituality.  He  is  no  longer 
the  pattern  for  his  flock  in  the  realistic 
sense  of  previous  generations.  A  young 
man  who  enters  the  ministry  today, 
therefore,  can  scarcely  attain  to  the 
eminence  or  wield  the  influence  he 
might  have  done  fifty  years  ago;  nor 
can  he  expect  to  reach  that  degree  of 
eminence  or  even  influence  to  which 
he  might  attain  in  other  lines  of 
activity.  The  personal  incentive  to 
high  achievement  is  consequently  lack- 
ing. The  ministry,  in  its  ideal  state, 
is  quite  altruistic.  The  minister  must 
work  for  his  congregation  with  only 
secondary  regard  for  his  own  wants 
and  likes.  The  degree  of  religion  and 
morality  which  he  must  exercise,  many 
men  believe,  is  too  high  for  a  man's 
greatest  degree  of  efficiency.  By  de- 
voting more  attention  to  practical, 
workable  problems,  instead  of  special- 
izing, as  it  were,  upon  religion,  greater 
[45] 


THE  MINISTRY 


results  might  be  secured.  Then,  from 
a  financial  or  mercenary  standpoint  — 
a  standpoint  which  must  always  be 
considered  to  some  extent  —  the  min- 
istry has  few  allurements.  The  salary 
is,  and  must  continue  to  be,  a  secondary 
consideration.  Perhaps  I  might  sum 
up  the  objections  to  entering  the  min- 
istry by  saying  that,  in  the  opinions 
of  many  men,  the  end  does  not 
justify  the  means,  that  the  extra  good 
they  might  do  mankind,  including 
themselves,  by  entering  the  ministry, 
is  not  sufficient  to  justify  the  sacrifice 
to  themselves  in  money  and  pleasure." 
A  seventh  preventing  cause  is  that 
the  young  man  in  college  fears  the 
ministry  means  the  surrender  of  his 
intellectual  independence.  The  stu- 
dent boasts  of  such  independence. 
Scholarship  is  monarchical  and  he  is 
the  monarch.  Scholarship  has  all  the 
monarchy  of  a  democracy  and  all 
the  democracy  of  a  monarchy.  But  the 
student  looks  upon  the  ministry  as  a 
[461 


OBJECTIONS 


condition  into  which  he  enters  by  sign- 
ing a  creed,  and  in  which  he  stays  only 
by  continued  adherence  to  that  stand- 
ard. In  the  denominational  papers  he 
reads  of  a  student  whom  he  knew  ten 
years  ago,  who  has  just  retired  from 
the  ministry  by  reason  of  his  failure  in 
an  examination  before  an  ecclesiastical 
council.  He  feels  that  to  enter  certain 
branches  of  the  work  of  the  Church  he 
has  to  submit  to  rather  severe  intellec- 
tual trials  and  to  arbitrary  moral  tests. 
Thus  he  reasons,  and  though  his  pre- 
mises may  be  false,  he  regards  his  logic 
as  true  and  the  conclusion  as  necessary. 
An  eighth  reason  is  similar.  It  is  the 
fear  of  the  student  that  he  may  be 
obliged  to  surrender  his  practical  in- 
dependence. The  student  knows  that 
the  minister  is  the  servant  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  he  knows  also  that  the 
congregation  is  composed  of  hundreds 
or  even  of  thousands  of  individuals. 
He  knows  that  it  will  be  his  duty  as 
far  as  possible  to  please  each  one  of  the 
[47] 


THE  MINISTRY 


individuals  of  his  future  congregations. 
He  knows  that  if  anyone  becomes  angry 
with  or  grieved  at  him,  the  result  may 
be  of  extreme  pain  or  suffering  to 
himself.  He  knows  that  he  lacks  the 
right  to  command.  He  knows  that  if 
he  attempts  to  be  independent,  unless 
his  positions  are  taken  with  great 
care,  he  necessarily  gives  offense.  Seen 
from  the  college  period,  such  depend- 
ence becomes  extremely  irksome.  He 
desires  to  be  his  own  master.  Seen 
through  the  lenses  of  college  rules  and 
tutors,  the  period  when  life  and  life's 
freedom  shall  be  his,  appears  extremely 
attractive.  To  bring  into  this  future 
period  of  liberty  the  subserviency  of 
the  ministry  is  extremely  irksome. 

But  the  ground  of  the  fear  of  the  loss 
of  intellectual  and  practical  independ- 
ence is  fast  passing.  The  college  man 
having  become  minister  can  now  stand 
fearless,  as  Luther,  in  each  of  the  lead- 
ing churches.  To  quote  again  from 
an  address  of  President  Eliot: 
[481 


OBJECTIONS 


"Freedom  of  thought  and  speech  for 
a  minister  is  a  somewhat  recent  acqui- 
sition. In  former  times  a  young  man 
enlisted  in  the  services  of  a  given 
church  or  denomination,  and  after  that 
enlistment  was  subject  for  life  to  the 
peculiar  discipline  and  dogmas  of  that 
church  or  denomination.  He  joined 
the  Roman  Church,  or  the  Anglican 
Church,  or  the  Lutheran  Church  for  life, 
and  had  no  expectation  of  changing  his 
opinions  or  ever  questioning  the  au- 
thority of  the  church  with  which  he 
had  united.  There  is  now  a  much 
greater  freedom  of  choice  among  de- 
nominations for  the  young  man  who 
wants  to  be  a  minister.  The  young 
Harvard  graduate  who  thinks  he  would 
like  to  be  a  minister  may  make  his 
choice  among  the  denominations  in 
accordance  with  his  own  temperament, 
capacities,  and  intellectual  needs,  se- 
curing that  degree  of  freedom  in  the 
future  which  he  personally  desires,  or 
needs,  for  his  best  mental  and  spiritual 
[49] 


THE  MINISTRY 


development.  -He  must  make  this  first 
choice  with  wisdom  and  well-grounded 
confidence  in  himself,  also  he  may  sow 
the  seed  of  grave  afflictions  in  his 
subsequent  career.  In  many  Protes- 
tant denominations  the  bonds  of  creed 
and  canon,  and  even  of  ritual,  have 
been  much  relaxed  of  late  years ;  while 
in  several  denominations  the  minister, 
once  admitted  to  full  standing,  enjoys 
an  almost  perfect  freedom  within  the 
limits  of  gentle  manners  and  of  just 
consideration  for  the  freedom  of  others. 
The  great  progress  made  within  a 
generation  in  Biblical  criticism,  in  the 
comparative  study  of  religions,  and  in 
the  history  of  Christianity,  has  naturally 
led  to  a  great  increase  in  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech,  not  only  in  the 
various  religious  denominations  them- 
selves but  in  society  at  large,  and  has 
furnished  new  grounds  for  that  uni- 
versal toleration  which  mankind  first 
arrived  at  through  centuries-long  ex- 
perience of  the  physical  and  mental 
[501 


OBJECTIONS 


horrors  of  religious  intolerance.  For 
more  than  a  century  past  all  history, 
philosophy,  science,  and  poetry  have 
been  reinforcing  and  amplifying  the 
policy  of  toleration  and  the  demand 
of  civilized  mankind  for  freedom  in 
religious,  as  well  as  political,  thought 
and  action.  The  profession  of  the 
ministry  has  fully  shared  this  general 
progress  of  mankind  towards  freedom. 
If,  then,  the  young  Harvard  graduate 
determines  wisely  at  the  start  what 
amount  of  freedom  of  thought  he 
really  needs,  and  is  likely  to  need,  for 
the  satisfaction  of  his  religious  nature, 
he  need  not  fear  that  he  will  not  enjoy 
as  a  minister  an  adequate  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech." 

A  further  reason  turning  college  men 
away  from  the  ministry  is  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  business  and  of  the  results 
of  success  in  business.  The  age  is  a 
material  age,  with  a  large  element  of 
idealism.  The  world  is  in  process 
of  development.  Vast  commercial  and 
[51] 


THE  MINISTRY 


industrial  concerns  are  organized  and 
are  dominant.  Such  undertakings  de- 
mand and  attract  able  college  graduates. 
Another  class  of  causes  —  the  fourth 
—  preventing  men  from  entering  the 
profession  of  the  ministry  is  found 
in  the  attractiveness  of  other  social 
professions.  For,  in  our  times,  two 
callings  which  have  direct  human  and 
humane  relationships,  have  emerged. 
They  are  found  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  the  Social 
Settlement.  These  forms  of  service  are 
commanding  the  college  men  who  thirty 
or  twenty,  or  possibly  ten  years  ago, 
would  have  entered  the  ministry.  These 
works  require,  in  preparation  for  them, 
a  mind  well  trained  and  a  heart  devoted 
to  the  moral  welfare  of  man.  The  appeal 
they  make  is  based  on  a  broader  human 
foundation  than  is  found  in  the  ordinary 
ministry.  Their  field  of  work  more 
usually  lies  in  the  city.  Urban  prob- 
lems and  conditions  are  more  attractive 
to  the  mind  of  the  young  graduate  than 
[52] 


OBJECTIONS 


the  rural.  Be  it  also  said  that  no 
small  part  of  the  endeavor  of  these  two 
associations  does  embody  Christ's  com- 
mand of  loving  one's  neighbor  as  one's 
self.  A  copy  of  the  magazine  called 
"Human  Engineering"  lies  before  me. 
It  represents  service  for  men  more 
wise,  supported  by  appropriations  more 
liberal,  and  gives  promise  of  a  service 
more  effective  than  a  single  ordinary 
church,  or  perhaps  a  federation  of 
churches,  could  offer  or  accomplish. 

The  ample  opportunities  for  work  in 
other  callings  than  the  clerical,  in 
the  old  traditional  professions,  and  in 
the  new,  like  engineering,  architecture, 
journalism,  must  in  any  comparative 
survey  be,  included.  About  one-half 
of  the  graduates  of  American  colleges 
are  entering  business.  Industrialism 
and  commerce  are  becoming  more  com- 
prehensive in  their  field,  more  complex 
in  their  methods,  more  forceful  in  their 
workings.  Such  conditions  demand 
men  of  minds  well  disciplined  and  of 
[53] 


THE  MINISTRY 


character  of  high  resolve.  Business 
requires  the  educated  man.  In  this 
large  proportion  of  graduates,  there- 
fore, entering  business,  are  found  many 
who,  a  generation  ago,  would  have  be- 
come clergymen. 

Such,  as  it  seems  to  me,  are  some  of 
the  reasons  constraining  able  men,  who 
are  becoming  graduates  of  historic 
colleges,  to  turn  to  other  professions 
than  the  clerical  as  a  career.  They  are 
reasons  diverse,  comprehensive,  force- 
ful. They  embody  conditions,  finan- 
cial, social,  religious,  which  deserve 
most  serious  consideration.  No  one 
should  select  the  great  calling  without 
weighing  them. 


54] 


Ill 

QUALITIES  NECESSARY  IN  THE 

MAN  CHOOSING  THE 

MINISTRY 


CHAPTER  III 

QUALITIES      NECESSARY     IN     THE      MAN 
CHOOSING   THE   MINISTRY 

WHAT  are  the  qualities  and  ele- 
ments which  the  college  man 
should   demand  of  himself  as 
necessary  for  his  entering  the  ministry? 
I  wish  to  name  five. 

First,  the  student  should  find  in 
himself  a  sense  of  good  fellowship.  His 
life  as  a  minister  will  be  spent  with,  as 
well  as  for,  men.  With  them  he  lives 
in  order  to  make  their  life  richer  and 
finer.  To  secure  this  result,  he  is  to  be 
with  them  not  simply  in  exterior  re- 
lations; he  is  to  be  with  them  in 
sympathetic  thinking  and  feeling.  He 
is  to  be  able  to  appreciate  their  point 
of  view,  to  take  account  of  their 
prejudices,  to  have  a  tear  for  their 
suffering  and  a  smile  for  their  joys. 
Of  course  this  is  only  saying  that  the 
college  man  who  proposes  to  become  a 
[57] 


THE  MINISTRY 


minister  should  demand  of  himself  a 
high  type  of  the  gentleman.  I  do  not 
mean  the  conventional  gentleman,  al- 
though it  is  well  for  the  clergyman  to 
be  the  conventional  gentleman,  but  I 
mean  that  noblest  quality  of  substi- 
tution by  which  the  college  man  can 
enter  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those 
whom  he  serves.  The  saint's  raptures 
should  not  be  remote  from  him;  the 
temptations  of  the  fallen  he  should  be 
able  to  appreciate;  the  downward  gravi- 
tation of  sensualism  and  of  materialism 
he  should  be  able  to  interpret.  The 
college  man,  who,  as  he  thinks  of  his 
fitness  for  the  work  of  the  minister, 
finds  a  mighty  sense  of  good  fellowship 
in  himself,  should,  content  with  this 
discovery,  pass  on  to  further  self- 
examination. 

One  who  finds  he  has  a  liking  for 
bringing  things  to  pass  may  fittingly 
think  of  the  ministry  as  his  calling. 
For  the  minister  is  to  do  things.  He 
is  an  executive.  His  church  is  a  field 
[58] 


QUALITIES  NECESSARY 


to  be  cultivated.  His  church  is  a  force 
to  be  worked.  His  church  is  a  con- 
stituency to  be  formed,  informed  and 
enriched.  His  church  is  a  community; 
it  is  also  a  part  of  a  community:  —  the 
relation  of  the  smaller  community  and 
the  larger  is  to  be  made  nobly  and 
mutually  beneficent.  The  minister  may 
be  insistent  upon  his  own  attention 
to  details;  he  may  be  concerned  only 
with  policies,  movements,  tendencies. 
But,  in  either  case,  results  are  to  be  had. 
The  church  is  to  bring  forth  works 
meet  not  only  for  repentance,  but  for 
edification  also.  The  college  man  who 
contemplates  the  ministry  should  be 
an  executive,  an  administrator.  If  he 
find  in  himself  a  liking  to  do  things  in 
his  college  class,  in  his  clubs,  in  his 
societies,  which  make  for  the  efficiency 
of  the  organization,  he  can  assure 
himself  that  he  has  ability  for  bringing 
things  to  pass.  Football  captains  make 
first-rate  pastors. 

In  his  inventory,  too,  of  his  fitnesses 
[59] 


THE  MINISTRY 


for  the  clerical  life,  the  college  man  will 
not  forget  the  place  which  public 
speaking  fills  in  this  life.  That  place 
is  large,  and  that  place  represents  a 
constant  and  inevitable  duty.  The 
pulpit  becomes  with  each  passing  dec- 
ade more  unique;  it  now  represents 
the  only  place  in  which  a  man  regularly 
and  constantly  addresses  the  com- 
munity. The  sermon  takes  on  all  the 
forms  of  literary  and  rhetorical  art. 
Its  conditions  are  now  interpreted  in  a 
large  freedom.  Almost  every  subject 
which  is  germane  to  the  welfare  of  man 
is  believed  to  be  appropriate  for  presen- 
tation in  a  sermon.  But,  under  all 
these  diversities  remains  the  one  con- 
trolling fact  that  the  minister  is  a  speaker 
to  the  people.  The  college  man,  there- 
fore, in  his  voyage  of  self-discovery, 
is  to  feel  sure  of  his  adaptiveness 
to  public  address.  The  one  essential 
element  which  he  has  to  consider  is  his 
ability  and  liking  to  talk  sense  to  several 
or  many  men  in  an  interesting  way. 
[60] 


QUALITIES  NECESSARY 


The  talk  which  he  gives  to  his  fellow 
students  may  be  superficial  or  pro- 
found, simple  or  ornate,  illustrated 
with  stories  and  made  bright  with 
witticisms,  or  plain  and  straightfor- 
ward, teeming  with  suggestions  or 
narrow  in  its  application — whatever 
may  be  its  character  or  content,  if  the 
college  man  likes  to  talk  and  is  able  to 
talk  to  the  interest  of  the  group  which 
gathers  about  him,  he  can  feel  reason- 
ably convinced  that  he  possesses  a 
faculty  most  important  in  the  ministry. 
Furthermore,  this  man  is  to  embody 
a  high  type  of  the  gentleman.  And 
who  and  what  is  the  gentleman?  The 
gentleman  is  the  man  who  appreciates 
the  best  which  life  offers.  Apprecia- 
tion is  both  intellectual,  emotional, 
volitional.  It  is  discrimination  plus 
sympathy.  It  contains  a  dash  of  ad- 
miration. It  recognizes  and  adopts 
the  best  in  every  achievement,  —  the 
arts  of  literature,  poetry,  sculpture, 
painting,  architecture.     The  cultivated 

[611 


THE  MINISTRY 


person  seeks  out  the  least  unworthy  in 
the  unworthy,  and  the  most  worthy  in 
that  which  is  at  all  worthy.  The 
person  of  cultivation  knows,  compares, 
relates,  judges.  He  has  standards,  and 
he  applies  them  to  things,  measures, 
methods.  He  is  able  to  discriminate 
and  to  feel  the  difference  between  the 
Parthenon  and  the  Pantheon,  between 
a  poem  of  Tennyson  and  one  of  William 
Watson.  His  moral  nature  is  fine,  as 
his  intellectual  is  honest.  He  is  filled 
with  reverence  for  truth,  duty,  right- 
eousness. He  is  humble,  for  he  knows 
how  great  is  truth,  how  imperative 
duty.  He  is  modest,  for  he  respects 
others.  He  is  patient  with  others  and 
with  himself,  for  he  knows  how  trans- 
cendent is  the  right.  He  can  be 
silent  when  in  doubt.  He  can  speak 
alone  when  truth  is  unpopular.  He  is 
willing  to  lose  his  voice  in  the  "Choir 
Invisible"  when  it  chants  either  the 
Miserere  or  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  He 
is  a  man  of  proportion,  of  reality, 
[621 


QUALITIES  NECESSARY 


sincerity,  honesty,  justice,  temperance, 
—  intellectual  and  ethical. 

The  college  man  should  find  a  still 
more  fundamental  element  in  himself: 
the  desire  to  use  his  sense  of  good 
fellowship,  his  executive  power,  his 
ability  for  speaking,  his  large  gracious- 
ness,  for  ethical  and  religious  ends. 
This  condition  is  absolute.  One  may 
say  that  this  condition  is  not,  however, 
unique.  For  the  man  proposing  to 
become  the  lawyer  or  the  doctor  or  the 
merchant  should  also  use  every  force 
of  his  character  for  ethical  and  re- 
ligious ends.  But  be  it  further  said 
that,  though  there  are  good  lawyers 
and  doctors  and  merchants  who  do 
not  use  their  powers  primarily  for 
ethical  and  religious  ends,  yet  every 
minister  is  absolutely  and  fully  to 
use  his  powers  for  ethical  and  religious 
ends.  The  failure  to  make  such  a  use 
of  them  is  treason.  Therefore,  be  it 
affirmed  that  the  college  man  who 
finds  the  elements  and  qualities  of  his 
[63  1 


THE  MINISTRY 


manhood  directed  toward  the  highest 
moral  and  Christian  purposes  may- 
believe  he  is  fulfilling  a  primary  con- 
dition of  becoming  a  minister. 

These  five  items  —  good  fellowship, 
executive  skill,  public  speech,  qualities 
of  the  gentleman,  and  ethical  and 
religious  ends  —  of  course  coexist  in 
different  proportions  in  the  case  of 
different  college  men.  The  divine 
author  of  a  man's  being  never  allows 
each  of  these  gifts  to  be  bestowed  upon 
the  same  recipient  in  their  fullness. 
What  a  genius  for  friendship  may  go 
along  with  a  lack  of  executive  power! 
What  skill  as  an  administrator  may 
accompany  a  low  degree  of  acceptance 
as  a  preacher!  Ah!  the  contrasts  are 
great  and  common.  But  the  student, 
assessing  each  of  these  items  at  its 
just  value,  finally  adds  up  the  positive 
and  subtracts  the  negative  quantities. 
If  the  result  indicates  that  he  has  such 
power  in  himself  as  I  have  tried  to 
interpret,  he  should  consider  the 
[641 


QUALITIES  NECESSARY 


ministry    as     a    choice    among    life's 
callings. 

These  elements  constitute  a  "call." 
They  represent  forces  found  in  oneself 
which  allow  one  to  think  with  favorable 
presumption  of  becoming  a  minister. 
It  is  the  testimony  of  some  men  that 
they  have  heard,  as  it  were,  the  voice 
of  God  speaking  to  them,  as  clearly  as 
if  he  spoke  to  them  audibly,  command- 
ing them  to  become  ministers.  Such 
commands  are  extraordinary,  and  pos- 
sibly are  less  usual  now  than  formerly. 
I  hold  that  no  such  categorical 
imperatives  or  conspicuous  facts  are 
necessary  to  constitute  a  "  call."  I  be- 
lieve that  a  young  man  who  desires  to 
make  his  life  of  the  most  worth,  who 
wishes  to  use  the  years  that  God  gives 
him  most  directly  and  powerfully  in 
the  service  of  God,  who  has  a  clear 
brain  and  warm  heart  and  fitting 
presence,  may  rightly  consider  himself 
as  one  thus  called.  Any  Christian  man 
who  believes  that  he  can  do  more  good 
[65] 


THE  MINISTRY 


in  the  ministry  than  in  any  other 
calling,  should  become  a  minister.  Any 
young  man  who  believes  that  he  can 
do  more  good  in  any  other  calling 
should  not  become  a  minister.  This 
is  the  call  of  divine  common  sense. 
It  is  the  call  made  by  and  to  Christian 
character.  It  may  be  said,  and  some 
have  said,  that  no  man  should  enter 
the  ministry  if  he  can  avoid  it.  That 
is,  he  should  enter  it  only  with  a  sense 
of  shrinking.  So  tremendous  are  its 
responsibilities,  so  delicate  its  functions, 
he  should  not  consider  himself  as  at 
all  qualified  for  it  except  as  he  feels  the 
imperative  call  of  duty.  But  some 
men  do  not  thus  feel.  Some  men  are 
not  gifted  with  this  delicate  and  far- 
reaching  sentiment  which  inspires  and 
guides  others.  I  believe,  if  a  young 
man,  studying  himself,  studying  the 
conditions  of  his  time,  thinks  that  the 
conditions  existing  in  himself  may  be 
employed  in  the  greatest  worth  to  his 
age  and  place  in  the  ministry,  he 
[66] 


QUALITIES  NECESSARY 


should    become    a    candidate  for   the 
ministry. 

But  this  little  volume  is  not  an 
argument;  it  is  only  an  appeal  of  man 
to  man,  and  appeals  should  be  made 
brief.  I  conclude  it  by  presenting 
testimonies  of  ablest  witnesses  regard- 
ing the  worth,  the  satisfactions,  and 
the  opportunities  of  the  great  vocation. 


[67] 


IV 

TESTIMONIES  REGARDING  THE 

SATISFACTIONS    AND     THE 

OPPORTUNITIES  OF  THE 

MINISTRY 


CHAPTER  IV 

TESTIMONIES     REGARDING     THE      SATIS- 
FACTIONS AND  THE  OPPORTUNITIES 
OF  THE   MINISTRY 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS  is  passing  into 
history  as  "the  ideal  minister  of 
the  American  gospel,"  as  Doctor 
Holmes,  in  writing  to  Bishop  Clark, 
once  called  him.  In  the  year  1877, 
speaking  to  the  students  of  the  Divin- 
ity School  of  Yale  University,  Brooks 
said: 

"  I  cannot  help  bearing  witness  to  the 
joy  of  the  life  which  you  anticipate. 
There  is  no  career  that  can  compare 
with  it  for  a  moment  in  the  rich  and 
satisfying  relations  into  which  it  brings 
a  man  with  his  fellow-men,  in  the  deep 
and  interesting  insight  which  it  gives 
him  into  human  nature,  and  in  the 
chance  of  the  best  culture  for  his  own 
character.  Its  delight  never  grows 
[71] 


THE  MINISTRY 


old,  its  interest  never  wanes,  its  stimu- 
lus is  never  exhausted.  It  is  different 
to  a  man  at  each  period  of  his  life; 
but  if  he  is  the  minister  he  ought  to  be, 
there  is  no  age,  from  the  earliest  year 
when  he  is  his  people's  brother  to  the 
late  days  when  he  is  like  a  father  to  the 
children  on  whom  he  looks  down  from 
the  pulpit,  in  which  the  ministry  has 
not  some  fresh  charm  and  chance  of 
usefulness  to  offer  to  the  man  whose 
heart  is  in  it.  Let  us  never  think  of  it 
in  any  other  way  than  this.  Let  us 
rejoice  with  one  another  that  in  a 
world  where  there  are  a  great  many 
good  and  happy  things  for  men  to  do, 
God  has  given  us  the  best  and  hap- 
piest, and  made  us  preachers  of  His 
Truth."1 

Nine  years  after  the  giving  of  this 
address,  in  a  course  of  lectures  offered 
to  the  men  of  Harvard  College  on  the 
different  professions,  Phillips  Brooks 
was    called    upon    to    speak    on    the 

1  Lectures  on  Preaching  delivered  before  the  Divinity  School  of 
Yale  College.     Phillips  Brooks,  p.  4. 


[72 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

Ministry.     One  who  was  present  thus 
describes  the  scene. 

"I  was  there  in  Sever  11,  and  it  was 
an  occasion  in  the  life  of  Brooks  —  a 
great  opportunity,  and  he  realized  it. 
The  hall  was  never  more  crowded. 
Students  stood  and  sat  on  the  window 
seats;  they  seemed  to  be  on  each  other's 
shoulders.  He  tried  to  be  cool  and 
philosophical,  and  tell  them  what  the 
ministry  was  like,  as  previous  speakers 
had  told  of  the  other  professions,  —  he 
started  in  that  way,  but  the  mass  of 
young  men  and  the  upturned  faces  and 
the  subject  got  the  better  of  him,  till, 
throwing  philosophy  and  cool  state- 
ment to  the  winds,  he  broke  out,  'I 
can't  come  here  and  talk  to  you  of  the 
ministry  as  one  of  the  professions.  I 
must  tell  you  that  it  is  the  noblest  and 
most  glorious  calling  to  which  a  man  can 
give  himself.'  The  torrent  once  loose, 
it  did  not  cease  till  it  reached  the  deep 
calm  of  his  closing  words.  One  was 
almost  afraid  that  the  whole  body  of 
[73  1 


THE  MINISTRY 


young  men  would  rise  on  the  impulse 
and  cry,  'Here  am  I,  send  me!'"1 

Speaking  to  young  men  on  the  satis- 
factions of  the  ministry,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  said: 

"I  want  to  tell  you  true  preaching 
is  yet  to  come.  Of  all  professions  for 
young  men  to  look  forward  to,  I  do 
not  know  another  one  that  seems  to  me 
to  have  such  scope  before  it,  in  the 
future,  as  preaching. 

"And  as  my  years  increase  I  want 
to  bear  testimony.  I  suppose  I  have 
had  as  many  opportunities  as  any  man 
here,  or  any  living  man,  of  what  are 
called  honors  and  influences  and  wealth. 
The  doors  have  been  opened,  the  golden 
doors,  for  years.  I  want  to  bear  wit- 
ness that  the  humblest  labor  which  a 
minister  of  God  can  do  for  a  soul  for 
Christ's  sake  is  grander  and  nobler 
than  all  learning,  than  all  influence  and 
power,  than  all  riches.  And,  knowing 
so  much  as  I  do  of  society,  I  have  this 

»  Allen's  Life  of  Phillips  Brooks,  Vol.  II,  pp.  802-3. 

[74] 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

declaration  to  make:  that  if  I  were 
called  to  live  my  life  over  again,  and 
I  were  to  have  a  chance  of  the  voca- 
tions which  men  seek,  I  would  again 
choose,  and  with  an  impetus  arising 
from  the  experience  of  this  long  life, 
the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  for  honor,  for  cleanliness,  for 
work  that  never  ends,  having  the 
promise  of  the  life  that  now  is  as  well 
as  of  that  which  is  to  come  —  I  would 
choose  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel:  to 
them  that  perish,  foolishness;  to  them 
that  believe  and  accept  it,  life  ever- 
lasting. .  .  . 

There  is  a  deep  enjoyment  in  hav- 
ing devoted  yourself,  soul  and  body, 
to  the  welfare  of  your  fellowmen,  so 
that  you  have  no  thought  and  no  care 
but  for  them.  There  is  a  pleasure  in 
that  which  is  never  touched  by  any 
ordinary  experience  in  human  life.  It 
is  the  highest.  I  look  back  to  my  mis- 
sionary days  as  being  transcendently 
the  happiest  period  of  my  life.  The 
[75] 


THE  MINISTRY 


sweetest  pleasures  I  have  ever  known 
are  not  those  I  have  now,  but  those 
that  I  remember,  when  I  was  unknown, 
in  an  unknown  land,  among  a  scattered 
people,  mostly  poor,  and  to  whom  I 
had  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel,  man 
by  man,  house  by  house,  gathering 
them  on  Sundays,  a  few  —  twenty, 
fifty,  or  a  hundred,  as  the  case  might 
be  —  and  preaching  the  Gospel  more 
formally  to  them  as  they  were  able  to 
bear  it."1 

Yet,  however  deep  the  satisfactions 
of  the  ministry  may  be,  the  college 
man  does  not  select  it  having  the  en- 
joyment of  these  satisfactions  as  his 
motive  and  goal.  To  him  rather  the 
primary  concern  is:  are  the  opportuni- 
ties for  usefulness  in  this  calling  as 
great  as  in  any  other,  and  are  they  as 
great  now  as  they  ever  were.  My 
own  answers  to  the  burning  question 
I  have  already  given.  These  answers 
—  however  inconclusive  —  I  want  to 

}  Beecher  &  Scoville'g  Biography  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  pp. 
592-3. 


76 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

supplement  by  the  testimonies  made  to 
me  of  those  whose  words  do  weigh. 

It  is  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Charles 
H.  Parkhurst,  of  New  York,  that  the 
opportunities  are  not  only  as  great 
as  they  ever  were,  but  "greater." 
"Any  young  man,"  he  says,  "entering 
the  ministry  today,  provided  he  is  a 
person  of  solid  convictions  and  has 
the  love  of  God  and  man  in  his  heart 
and  appreciates  the  conditions  which 
as  a  preacher  and  pastor  he  will  be 
obliged  to  confront,  will  find  himself  at 
a  point  of  immense  opportunity  and 
incalculable  influence." 

The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  New 
York,  Dr.  Greer,  gives  further  con- 
firmation. The  opportunities  are  "  not 
only  as  great  but  greater;  that  is  for 
strong,  capable,  well-furnished  and  de- 
voted men.  They  must  also  be  men 
who  possess  definite  and  positive  con- 
victions, or  rather  whose  convictions 
possess  them.  Such  men  will  obtain  a 
hearing  today  and  their  message  will  be 
[77] 


THE  MINISTRY 


eagerly  welcomed  and  received.  There 
is  also  a  great  opportunity  before  the 
minister  today  for  leadership  in  social 
uplift;  but  this  must  not  bulk  too 
largely  in  the  pulpit,  and  should  always 
be  subordinated  to  its  spiritual  teach- 
ing and  preaching." 

Washington  Gladden  regards  a  min- 
istry of  the  present  day  as  "the  chance 
of  a  lifetime."  The  minister  becomes 
not  only  an  interpreter  of  the  present, 
but  also  a  prophet  of  the  future,  con- 
ditions.    He  writes: 

"I  wish  that  I  might  draw  the  atten- 
tion of  some  of  the  young  men  who  will 
live  through  this  period  of  fifty  years, 
and  who  are  cherishing  the  purpose  of 
service,  to  the  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  I  am  far  enough  from  think- 
ing that  the  church  is  perfect,  or  from 
imagining  that  all  the  work  of  the 
Kingdom  is  done  by  the  church.  But 
the  church  has  been,  and  in  increasing 
measures  will  be,  the  vitalizing  and 
inspiring  agency  in  the  social  move- 
[78] 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

ment.  Unless  the  ideas  and  forces 
which  the  church  stands  for  are  at  the 
heart  of  that  movement,  it  will  come 
to   naught. 

There  is  no  place  in  which  a  man  can 
get  nearer  to  the  heart  of  that  move- 
ment than  in  the  Christian  pulpit.  It 
is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  a  narrow 
place,  but,  as  a  rule,  it  is  as  wide  as  the 
man  who  stands  in  it  chooses  to  make 
it.  And  I  know  no  other  position  in 
which  a  man  has  so  many  chances  to 
serve  the  community;  in  which  he  is 
brought  into  such  close  and  helpful 
relations  with  so  many  kinds  of  people. 
The  field  of  the  church,  under  the  right 
kind  of  leadership,  is  as  wide  as  the 
world,  and  the  force  of  the  church  is 
more  responsive  today  than  ever  before 
to  the  right  kind  of  leadership." 

Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  Boston,  gives  further 
and  impressive  testimony. 

"I  believe  with  all  my  heart  that  the 
opportunities  for  the  preacher  of  today 
1791 


THE  MINISTRY 


are  greater  than  they  were  when  I 
entered  the  ministry.  But  the  preacher 
must  be  a  man  of  vision.  He  can  no 
longer  learn  a  system  of  theology 
in  a  theological  seminary  and  go 
out  to  retail  what  he  has  got  whole- 
sale upon  large  and  long-suffering 
congregations,  who  will  accept  any- 
thing provided  the  proper  traditional 
label  is  on  it.  The  voice  of  the 
preacher  has  become  the  voice  of  the 
prophet.  The  task  is  a  far  more  ex- 
acting one,  and  on  that  very  account, 
an  infinitely  richer  one.  There  is  room 
in  the  ministry  today  for  the  activity 
of  the  highest  intellectual  and  spiritual 
gifts,  and  never,  I  believe,  were  there 
such  opportunities,  since  the  Apostolic 
Age,  for  such  service  as  first-class 
young  men  can  render  in  this  vocation. 
For  myself,  I  should  have  been  content, 
and  more  than  content,  I  should  have 
been  delighted  to  have  spent  my  days 
in  a  town  like  Temple,  Maine,  where  I 
had  opportunity  to  think,  to  study,  and 
[801 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

serve  the  people  in  the  Spirit;  and  in 
return,  live  in  their  respect,  gratitude, 
and  affectionate  confidence." 

The  pastor  of  the  Clinton  Avenue 
Congregational  Church,  of  Brooklyn, 
Dr.  Nehemiah  Boynton,  writing  out 
of  a  long  ministry  in  Boston,  Detroit, 
as  well  as  Brooklyn,  makes  careful 
discrimination.     He  writes: 

"A  minister's  influence  runs  along 
two  lines.  It  is  direct,  and  it  is  in- 
direct. His  direct  influence  pertains 
predominately  to  his  public  utterance, 
and  his  indirect,  to  those  quiet  un- 
remembered  services  which  he  can 
either  initiate  or  speed  along  their 
already  projected  way. 

A  minister  must  share  today  more 
generously  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago  his  privilege  of  public  utterance. 
He  has  no  monopoly  of  it,  and  no 
patent  on  it.  The  Americans  are  de- 
veloping a  great  ability  for  public 
speech,  and  everybody  is  addressing 
the  sovereign  people.  The  man  who  is 
[811 


THE  MINISTRY 


a  member  of  the  white-winged  force, 
and  engaged  with  street  sweepings 
during  the  day  dressed  in  white  duck, 
is  found  in  a  swallow  tail  coat  in  the 
evening,  addressing  an  interested  com- 
pany upon  the  perils,  the  privileges, 
and  the  prerogatives,  not  to  say  politics 
of  his  calling,  and  incidentally  illumi- 
nating his  remarks  with  interesting  de- 
scriptions of  the  different  revelations 
which  an  examination  of  a  day's  street 
sweepings  may  disclose.  He  is  but  a 
type.  Almost  every  other  man  in 
every  other  calling  does  his  work 
by  day,  privately,  and  talks  about  it 
publicly  by  night. 

Now  the  man  who  can  talk  on  any 
subject  attractively,  enthusiastically, 
and  with  at  least  a  show  of  conviction, 
gets  an  audience.  People  still  love  to 
hear  vital  men  speak.  No  newspaper 
or  magazine  can  successfully  compete 
with  the  vital,  vibrant,  human  voice. 

A  minister  in  this  situation  has  the 
same  advantage  which  comes  to  trade 
[82  1 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

when  it  centers  on  a  given  street.  He 
takes  his  chances  with  the  rest.  He 
has  a  fair  field.  The  best  man  wins. 
If  a  minister's  gospel  is  for  him  'a 
consuming  fire';  if  he  is  aflame  with  it, 
audiences  will  be  drawn  to  his  light. 
He  will  have  his  chance,  not  only  in 
his  pulpit,  but  on  public  platforms, 
post-prandial  exercises,  and  every  sort 
of  a  public  occasion.  He  will  have  his 
chance,  not  because  he  is  a  minister,  a 
Reverend  by  grace  of  ordination,  and 
a  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  grace  of  an 
academic  institution,  but  because  he 
is  a  man  who  believes  things,  and 
who  says  what  he  believes  in  a  crisp, 
comprehensive,  and  commanding  man- 
ner, with  a  merciful  leaning  toward 
reasonable  brevity.  The  minister's 
chance  for  influence  through  public 
utterance  is  greater  today,  I  believe, 
than  ever  before,  if  he  will  interpret 
his  ministry  in  terms  of  the  highest 
needs,  and  the  noblest  opportunities 
of  the  present  age.  People  still  love 
[83] 


THE  MINISTRY 


to  hear  a  white,  high-souled  spirit 
deliver  itself  upon  the  commanding 
themes.  My  personal  opinion  is  that 
on  the  whole,  people  go  to  church  to 
hear  such  utterance,  about  as  well  as 
ever,  but  I  am  confident  that  they  give 
a  minister  more  chances  outside  the 
pulpit  to  proclaim,  man-fashion,  his 
mighty  theme,  than  ever  before,  only 
he  must  proclaim  it  under  the  new 
conditions. 

Now  regarding  the  indirect  influence 
of  a  minister  as  revealed  in  his  quiet 
touch  of  personal  influence  or  his  social 
services  to  the  community  at  large,  I 
believe  the  chance  for  usefulness  to  be 
distinctly  in  advance  of  any  yesterday 
the  ministry  has  known.  Religious 
conversations  today  are  broad  and 
inclusive.  They  have  regard  to  the 
entire  life.  There  is  a  freedom  and 
lack  of  reserve  about  them  which  gives 
a  greater  chance  for  influence  than 
when  they  were  concerned  quite  tech- 
nically about  the  symptoms  of  an 
[84] 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

individual  soul.  The  widening  con- 
ception of  the  great  inclusions  of  re- 
ligion gives  the  soul,  if  one  may  so 
speak,  an  offing,  and  it  wants  to  see 
itself  in  its  appropriate  relationships 
to  its  life-surrounding  and  task,  rather 
than  merely  in  its  other-world-challenge 
or  aspiration.  Religious  conversation 
today  is  not  infrequently  a  quiet,  earn- 
est, delightful,  Christian  talk  in  cir- 
cumambient relations.  The  question 
'What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?'  has 
been  transferred  from  the  mourner's 
bench  to  the  minister's  study;  from 
the  public  to  the  private  relation,  and 
the  chance  for  helpfulness,  as  I  believe, 
very  greatly  enhanced. 

Beyond  this,  a  level-headed  minister 
with  aspirations  for  the  ethical,  aes- 
thetic, and  social  weal  of  his  commun- 
ity, has  an  unparalleled  chance  today. 
There  are  so  many  things  in  the  making, 
in  America.  We  are  reaching  out  after 
higher  standards  and  more  command- 
ing impulsions,  convictions,  realiza- 
[851 


THE  MINISTRY 


tions,  in  every  department  of  life,  so 
that  the  question  for  a  minister  today- 
is  not  that  of  chances  to  get  in  his 
work  in  these  relationships  which  mean 
the  bettering  of  humanity,  but  it  is  the 
question  of  the  wise  selections  from  the 
multifarious  chances  which  are  his,  in 
view  of  his  particular  aptitudes  and 
abilities,  and  of  his  physical  strength. 
You  will  find  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
really  strong  social  movements  in  a 
great  city  today,  ministers  who  are 
lending  most  efficient  aid  in  'chipping 
the  bad  meat  from  the  municipal 
heart,'  and  in  'keeping  the  good  from 
spoiling,'  to  paraphrase  Will  Carleton. 
The  significance  of  very  much  of  this 
work  is  that  it  is  new,  untried,  founda- 
tion work  and  a  man  has  the  chance  to 
build  himself  into  the  beginning  of 
what  is  bound  to  be  in  coming  years, 
influences  of  significant  social  weal 
and  betterment.  Doubtless,  this  work 
is  hard,  perplexing,  baffling,  tedious, 
but  it  is  a  man's  chance  and  nothing  is 
[861 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

ever  realized  anywhere,  until  the  moun- 
tains of  difficulty  have  been  successfully 
scaled." 

The  President  of  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association  offers  a  similar  judg- 
ment, held  with  discernment  and  in 
enthusiasm.  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Eliot 
writes : 

"  I  am  well  assured  that  for  men  who 
love  the  risks  of  faith,  and  the  divine 
adventure,  who  can  live  hard  and  like 
it,  the  ministry  presents  the  noblest 
and  most  rewarding  of  careers.  The 
task  of  the  Christian  minister  today 
is  more  difficult  than  ever  before,  and 
it  is  a  good  thing  for  the  ministry  and 
for  the  Christian  church  that  the  task 
is  so  challenging,  and  that  it  taxes 
every  power  of  manhood.  Nothing  is 
to  be  gained  by  making  the  entrance 
into  the  ministry  easy.  The  ministry 
is  not  a  place  for  slack  or  selfish  persons. 
Good  honesty  and  sincerity  of  purpose 
are  not  enough.  Courage,  however 
heroic,  will  not  completely  suffice.  These 
[87] 


THE  MINISTRY 


qualities  are  needed,  but  also  the  power 
to  teach,  to  persuade,  to  console,  and 
the  possession,  to  some  extent,  of  the 
gift  of  judicious  leadership.  For  young 
men  with  these  qualities  and  gifts  the 
ministry  should  offer  not  only  the  most 
attractive  but  positively  the  most  re- 
warding of  all  opportunities  of  service." 

The  pastor  of  the  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle, Dr.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  says, 
"Never  has  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
Christ  had  such  a  good  chance  as  now"; 
and  Dr.  F.  W.  Gunsaulus  declares, 
"There  never  were  such  opportunities 
for  ministerial  success  as  in  the  im- 
mediate future." 

Similar  testimony  from  other  minis- 
ters also  of  great  place  and  power  could 
be  offered;  but  enough  has  been  given 
to  prove  that  the  opportunities  open  to 
the  minister  in  the  present  and  the 
near  future  are  as  broad  as  humanity's 
needs,  as  divine  as  the  character  of  the 
individual  man,  and  as  high  as  human 
destiny. 

[88] 


TESTIMONIES  REGARDING 

The  choice  of  his  entrance  through 
these  waiting  doors  unto  the  largest 
and  richest  usefulness  rests,  under  the 
grace  of  God,  with  the  student  himself. 


THE   END 


[89 


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